Putting the Ghosts of Princeton’s Racial Past Onstage

The plays, commissioned by the McCarter, are part of the broader Princeton & Slavery Project, a five-year research effort that has excavated and publicized the university’s complex racial history. They give voice to the ghosts of the past, and put them in conversation with the present. Emily Mann, the artistic director of the McCarter, said she hoped the plays would add to the currently raging national debate about slavery, history and memory.“The full history of America needs to be taught,” said Ms. Mann, who also contributed one of the plays. “Not with blame, but with full knowledge.”